Jonah walked through the saloon's swinging doors and into an empty, silent room. There wasn't even a bartender behind the counter.
"What is this? Where is everybody?" he asked out loud. "This place must be a ghost town."
He turned to leave, but two men now stood in the entrance, blocking his way. They were wearing cowboy hats and long dusters and had revolvers pointed at Jonah's head.
"I help you boys?" Jonah asked, annoyed.
"It's time for your trial," said one of the men.
"What trial?" asked Jonah.
"At the courthouse," said the other man.
"Talk sense." Jonah demanded. He was getting really pissed off at all these strange situations he kept encountering all of a sudden.
"Come on," said one of the men, stepping forward and pulling some manacles out of his coat pocket.
"If all you got is two men, you're gonna need a whole lot more," said Jonah. "If'n you think your taking me."
"How about three men?" said a voice behind Jonah. He turned to see another man standing there with a gun.
Nobody can sneak up on me, thought Jonah.
Suddenly there was a sharp blow to his temple and Jonah passed out as the world began to get hazy around him.
When he came to he was sitting on a bench inside a courthouse hallway with his hands cuffed in front of him and dried blood on the side of his head. He groaned. This was the second time in twenty-four hours he'd had to wake up from sudden unconsciousness and he was beginning to feel nauseous. He looked around himself and saw nobody nearby, then some double doors opened next to him and a bailiff came out.
"Right this way, Mr. Hex," he said. He came and helped Jonah to his feet by the shoulder and then nudged him forward. Jonah's gun was gone again and he was still feeling groggy so he did as he was told, but not before saying to the bailiff, "Don't touch me."
The bailiff backed away from Jonah, but followed him into the courtroom. Turns out that's where the entire town must have been at all this time, because the room was packed with about four hundred people all the way up to the balcony seats. As Jonah made his way down the long isle towards the front of the courtroom the audience jeered and booed at him. Jonah just sneered at them like a western rockstar and walked with his head held high. He reached the defendant's table and took a seat next to an empty chair.
Figures I wouldn't get a lawyer, Jonah thought to himself.
At the other table across to the side of his sat a young man in a white suit. The prosecutor, no doubt.
"all rise for the honorable Judge Gallows," shouted the bailiff after he took his place next to the bench.
The audience took to their feet, all the while chattering excitedly, as an old man with grey, wild hair and a scowl on his face emerged from a side room and sat at his seat high above Jonah Hex, who also stood, albeit reluctantly. The judge began to bang his gavel, which was shaped like a skull, repeatedly on its sounding block.
"Order!" he shouted in an angry voice. "Order in this court!"
Everyone got quiet.
"You may be seated," said the judge, then he picked up a piece of paper in front of him and began to read it out loud, "This court will now be hearing the case of the people versus Jonah Hex. Are both sides prepared and ready?" he asked.
"Yes, your honor," said the prosecutor.
"Like hell," said Jonah, angrily standing up. "I don't even know what I'm being accused of!"
"You're accused of murder, Mr. Hex, now sit down and button up, or I'll hold you in contempt," said the judge.
"Murder," grumbled Jonah, as he sat back down, "This is ridiculous." He casually glanced back at the audience behind him and for the first time noticed that not all of them were exactly human. One person appeared, in fact, to be a giant trout fish in a brown three-piece suit and bowler hat. Another was just a large chess piece.
"What the hell is going on?" Jonah whispered to himself. "I feel like I'm dreamin', or delirious, or... something."
"Maybe you're dead," said a childlike voice from right beside him. Jonah turned to see the girl with the multi-colored hair from earlier had somehow appeared in the chair next to him. He scoffed. "This better not be what death is like. If this kangaroo court is all that the killers and rapists and thieves I've done in have had to go through, I'd be mighty pissed off," he said to her.
"Maybe this is YOUR death. Maybe it's different for everyone. Like a sunset," said the girl.
"Girl, you don't make no sense," said Jonah, plainly.
"Mr Hex, who are you talking to?" asked Judge Gallows, loudly.
Jonah looked up at him and then back over to what was now just an empty chair again.
"No one, your honor," he said.
This was going to be a long day.
To Be Continued